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March 06, 2017

In a follow-up to a highly successful workshop held February 2017 in Bologna (Italy), three master scribes will offer a deep dive into the practice and application of visual thinking as a facilitation tool. [see details]

Visuals serve as key facilitative aids for collective seeing and navigation. Live scribing–giving form to the social body–is a method especially suited to address today’s great challenges. As visual practitioners, we face a particular need and opportunity to expand the awareness, mindsets, and choices that feed our outward expression.

Description: This immersive program is designed for intermediate and advanced visual practitioners who wish to strengthen and deepen their existing knowledge by enfolding Presencing, among other social technologies, towards developing mastery in the profession and field.​

May 27, 2016

Are you looking to become a stronger leader? Do you want to gain the skills and toolsets to encourage participation in your organization, and facilitate focused discussions?

Come to beautiful Cape Cod August 11-13 for the Gestalt International Study Center's Visual Leadership Program! Lead by ImageThink co-founder, Nora Herting, and supported by GISC faculty Sky Freyss-Cole and Gwynne Guzzeau. In this intimate setting amongst other leaders you will learn strategic tools to help you:

Clarify and Align Goals, Actions and Outcomes

Increase the ability of your group to envision the future and to create a shared picture of what it looks like.

Use visual tools to help your team and partners to get on the same page with clear goals, roles and commitments.

Visualize Your Ideas

Present your ideas visually and get buy-in from your leaders, team members, partners or clients.

Make complex issues understandable by making the connections visible.

Stimulate Participation

Use templates and learning maps to engage colleagues or stakeholders in idea development and decision making to ensure high level of ownership.

Use the visual language to activate creative and critical thinking at the same time.

May 02, 2011

Geek Interpreter Guy comes to the rescue and saves Mr. Projecto's change initiative from the brink of disaster. This comic introduces ChangeViz, a group facilitation approach that uses Visual Thinking and Gamestorming processes to support Change Management.

February 02, 2011

At first glance, improv might seem like the direct opposite of the business world. It's silly, raucous, and spontaneous.

But improv actors are sharp professionals who have an incredible ability to pull from past dialogue, anticipate future scenes and relationships, and engage audiences in just moments.

If you're trying to make it in the business world, you can learn a lot from improv actors.

Here are 25 tricks that work just as well in business as they do on stage.

My favorite is Trick #21:

Remember the "karaoke rule": The "karaoke rule" states that as long as you can sell your performance, you don't have to be the best singer/dancer/actor, etc. If you're able to communicate — or just fake — confidence and charisma, you have a better chance of convincing others of your idea.

A List Apart : JANUARY 25, 2011

The teacher who chastised you for “mindless doodling” was wrong on both counts. Far from shutting down the mind, the act of doodling engages the brain in the kind of visual sense-making people have practiced for over 30,000 years. Doodling sharpens concentration, increases retention, and enhances access to the problem solving unconscious. It activates the portions of the visual cortex that allow us to see mental imagery and manipulate concepts, and unifies three major learning modalities—visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Doodle Revolution leader Sunni Brown introduces strategic doodling and presents the ABCs of our shared visual alphabet.

You don’t have to be a great singer to write a great song—just ask Bob Dylan. Likewise, you needn’t be a Leonardo to draw your way to more and better ideas. Sketching helps you generate concepts quickly, exploring alternatives rapidly and at no cost of resources. The looseness of a sketch removes inhibitions, granting clients and colleagues permission to consider and challenge the ideas it represents. Mike Rohde outlines the practice, surveys the tools, and shares ways to become confident with this method of brainstorming, regardless of your level of artistic ability.

December 22, 2010

In the 1960's, Timothy Leary coined the term "set and setting" referring to a context that influenced the outcomes of psychoactive and psychedelic drug experiments on his subjects. "Set" refers to one's mindset, "setting" refers to the environment in which the user has the experience. Now I'm not necessarily suggesting that you administer psychoactive drugs to your participants, though I'm sure that would make your job a whole lot more interesting. What I am suggesting is that "set and setting" play a significant, and often overlooked role, in your work as a trainer, facilitator, or group leader.

The Set

The set is the mental state a person brings to your group. This includes their thoughts, judgments, beliefs, mood, and expectations about the work, the group, and/or particular group members. According to Neville and many modern thinkers, mystics, physicists, and others, our expectations and intentions about what will happen often has a lot to do with our experience of what does happen.

The Setting

The setting refers to the physical or social environment. We all know the impact that friendly versus unfriendly, or stressful versus relaxed environments have on us. Stress, fear or a disagreeable environment may contribute a great deal to an unpleasant experience (bad trip in Leary's terms). Conversely, a relaxed, curious person in a warm, comfortable and safe place is more likely to have a pleasant experience (or a good trip).

Can we facilitate the mental state of our participants before, during, or after group work? Can we manipulate the physical or social environment to get better results? As facilitators, I say "yes" and "yes," this is a big part of what we do, intentionally or unintentionally. But how?

Facilitation is a demanding role that can take its toll on you if you are not prepared at all levels. A master facilitator must have fine-tuned awareness and intuition to sense and act on the nuances of group process. They must stand tall in the face of conflict, willing to walk participants through to its resolution if required.

July 15, 2010

What is the Socratic Method? The Socratic Method uses questions to guide your student on a journey of discovery leading toward greater understanding or increased performance. Although facilitation is about moving people to where they want to go, the simple truth is that nobody moves anywhere unless they move themselves.

The Socratic Method is a way to help people see when they need to move, and where they need to move to. It produces better learning and better solutions because it leads people to explore, challenge their thinking, and discover answers for themselves.

Self-discovery facilitates action because individuals uncover for themselves what needs to be done and why. How does it work? There are two elements essential to using the Socratic Method - questions, and knowing where you're going.

September 29, 2009

Russian writer Isaac Babel believed that “no iron can pierce the heart with such force as a period put just at the right place.” In working with others, can anything bring a group of people to the brink of breakthrough more effectively than an unexpected, yet perfectly timed question mark?

August 04, 2009

This article from www.MasterFacilitatorJournal.com describes the value we bring as facilitators when we let go of our (false) image as an authority figure and empower our people to access and utilize their own wisdom and problem-solving skills as a group. Often, this requires us to look a little silly!